Window shade rollers are produced in several standard lengths, which are chosen to fit those windows having the most frequently encountered widths. Unfortunately, however, a great number of windows are not standard in width and even particular windows which are nominally of a standard width often vary from the "standard" dimensions. Consequently, it is often necessary to adjust the length of the roller upon which the shade is wound to the actual width of each particular window. This must be done reasonably accurately, or else the roller will not fit its supporting brackets, or the shade may appear to be displaced relative to the window.
The adjustment in the length of the roller to suit individual windows cannot be done at the factory, and accordingly must be done by either the dealer or the customer. The standard practice is to select the next larger standard size of shade and remove an end of both the shade and its roller as required to achieve the desired dimension. For this purpose, the dealers are normally equipped with special machines which neatly trim the shade and the end of its roller. Due to errors in measurement and in the trimming process, the trimmed roller is often incorrectly cut to size.
In view of the drawbacks of the standard "trimming" practice, various attempts have been made to devise customer or user adjustable length shade rollers. These prior attempts have primarily employed the use of various types of telescopic rollers. However, it has also been proposed to provide a plurality of sleeve devices which may be added to or removed from the roller, as required to increase or decrease its overall length, as evidenced for instance by U.S. Pat. No. 3,308,874.